The beautiful thing about technology in the year 2015 is that I can seamlessly pen blog articles from the comfort of a backseat as a few friends and I drive to the east coast.
As the headline of this article states, the Senators have re-signed Shane Prince to a one-year, two-way contract that will pay him an NHL salary of $700,000 or $120,000 if he plays in Binghamton.
Blogging from a car isn’t without its limitations however. Trying to figure out whether Prince is exempt from waivers is cumbersome enough now that Capgeek’s waiver calculator no longer exists.
I believe Prince was 19 when he first signed and he has played in 215 professional (regular and postseason) games. Now 22 years of age and with three professional seasons under his belt, I believe he would have passed the games played threshold that would have kept him waiver exempt. I could be wrong though, but if I am, I’ll just blame it on blogging from the Tim Horton’s parking lot in Rigaud.
Getting back to Prince however, I really liked his game during his two-game cup of coffee when the Senators believed their season was over. Admittedly, it was an incredibly small sample to assess, but I liked his creativity and speed on the fourth line. He really brought some sorely needed elements to that line.
I know that Matt Puempel gets more of the publicity because he lucked into a longer tour of duty thanks to the Senators’ west coast swing and their unanticipated winning streak. Couple that team success with more individual exposure and Puempel gets more buzz.
It also helps that he was a first round pick, a physically bigger player and someone whose shortcomings away from the puck are overlooked because of his natural goal scoring ability.
As a goal scorer, I question how well Puempel may fit in on the depth chart right now. If the Senators are serious about creating room for their prospects, I feel a bottom six role is better suited for a guy like Prince than it is Puempel.
Both players will likely be in competition for a depth role during training camp. In a perfect world, both players could push and inexpensively replace the redundant vets. If they prove that they belong, I just hope we won’t see them be boxed out of jobs simply because of the tenure or bad contracts that these veterans have.
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